The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, claims that he was "cured" of his homosexual condition when he met his first wife. Duterte stated at a public event that "beautiful women" "cured" him, and then asked 5 young girls to come up on stage to kiss him on the cheek. He has done so after accusing his opponent, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, of being homosexual. The Philippine president has tried to insult his rivals with homophobic insults on other occasions. Discover more stories on Business Insider . The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has claimed that he was gay , but that "beautiful women" "cured" him, according to CNN .
Duterte made the remarks just after accusing Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a vocal critic of the president's administration, of being gay at a public event before the Filipino community in Tokyo last Thursday. Thus, Duterte insisted before the crowd and in Tagalog that a homosexual person warned him that Trillanes is gay because of the way he moves , as reported by the SW Business Directory Philippine news website Rappler . "It's good that Trillanes and I are similar. But I healed myself," Duterte said, according to Rappler. "When I started my relationship with Zimmerman I said, that's it. I became a man again." Zimmerman is Duterte's first wife, Elizabeth Zimmerman, to whom he was married from 1973 to 2000. "So beautiful women cured me. Then I hated handsome men.
Now I prefer beautiful women," he remarked, according to CNN. The Philippines is 86% Catholic and many Filipinos are conservative. Duterte giving a speech at Fort Ramon Magsaysay in the Philippines, November 2016. Duterte giving a speech at Ramon Magsaysay Fort in the Philippines, November 2016. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco Duterte then invited 5 young women on stage to kiss him on the cheek , one by one, while his current partner, Honeylet Avanceña, watched, according to CNN Philippines.